Japan’s embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co has released details of its investment in Chevron’s $29 billion Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project, showing that government body Japan Oil, Gas and Metals Corporation (JOGMEC) will fund its stake in the venture.

Tepco, owner of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor, was billed yesterday as buying a 10 per cent stake in Chevron’s offshore Wheatstone gas licences and an 8 per cent stake in the LNG project being built at Ashburton north, near Onslow, in Western Australia.

But details released by the Japanese utility show that government body JOGMEC is the major holder in the stake, owning 42.08 per cent, while Tepco holds only 8.02 per cent. Mitsubishi Corporation holds about 39.7 per cent of the stake and Nippon Yusen 10.2 per cent.

JOGMEC is providing equity financing and loan guarantees to a venture formed by Tepco, Mitsubishi and shipping company Nippon Yusen.

Tepco is set to be nationalised by the Japanese government in a 1 trillion yen bailout as it struggles with huge costs for clean-up and compensation arising from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Tepco also released more details of its LNG purchase contracts for Wheatstone. Its Pan Pacific Energy venture with its three Japanese partners will get 700,000 tonnes a year of LNG through its equity holding, which will be bought by Tepco. Tepco will also buy 400,000 tonnes a year directly from Chevron. It also has a pre-existing contract, executed last July, to buy 3.1 million tonnes a year from the broader Wheatstone partners, including Apache and Kufpec, also for up to 20 years.

Deliveries to Tepco are due to start in 2017 and last up to 20 years. Wheatstone is due to start production in late 2016.

Meanwhile, a similar agreement for Tepco to buy a direct stake in Inpex’s $US34 billion Ichthys LNG venture in Darwin is still pending, having also been delayed by the ramifications from the Fukushima accident.